I did learn never to go in through the back door again..

I was still in high school and lived close enough to walk home from it to the house, and me and a friend had walked home together that afternoon to study and chill out or whatever. So I got home, and went down the hall to turn the alarm off, and had mistakenly keyed in the “hostage” code rather than the regular code, which meant that the alarm company doesn’t call you to see if the police really need to be sent out. They send them immediately. Well, literally within ten or so minutes two police officers pulled into the driveway, and I internally freaked out, wondering what was going on. One of them walked up the steps to the front door and I met him out there with my friend. He asked me cautiously, while walking slowly forward “is everything ok here?” I told him yes, it was and asked if there was an issue – he said the PD had gotten a call about a hostage situation wanted to come in and look around the house. I realized then that I had keyed in the wrong code. Shortly after that, my mom drove up the driveway, blazing a trail – took her fifteen minutes to get there on a drive from work that normally took about 35 minutes – LOL. She was on the contact list for the alarm company and they called her as well as the police to let her know about the “hostage” situation. Man, was I sure embarassed having the police there and mom showing up, looking very panicky and worried.

In any event, it ended well – the police officers were nice enough but not overly friendly, just doing their jobs, and I was as nice as I could be without knowing at first why they were there, even though internally I was freaking out. My fear was that someone had called in a report of suspicious activity around the house and the police were responding to it. Turns out it was a false alarm, and all my fault.

You’re right in that we should all put ourselves in the shoes of a policeman and imagine what they see everyday, and what they’re thinking when they get a report of a burglarly or other crime in progress. It sounds like Crowley acted with the utmost professionalism in dealing with a crazy-acting “respected Harvard professor” who apparently relishes playing the victim card if it can garner him attention in any way. I can understand being upset and concerned with having a policeman ask you for ID in your own home, but had Gates considered the fact that there had been some other burglaries in his area – including an attempt on his own home – maybe things would have turned out differently.

I didn’t get indignant, didn’t act like an ass, and there was no problem. In one case the officer responding was Hispanic. I suspect the outcome might have been different if I’d immediately started lambasting him about how all the Latinos were just looking for an opportunity to jump on a white guy, how they were all scum, etc. (insert racially bigoted comment here). I actually thanked both of them for showing up so quickly, told them I appreciated the fact that if it had been a real burglary it was nice to know they were out there and could respond so quickly, which was my honest reaction.

It’s easy to pick on a cop for responding with a hand on their weapon, or being nervous inside someone’s house by themselves, etc. but I’ve worked with a fair number of police in my last job in forensics, and while there are undoubtedly asses in the police, it’s not a safe or easy job. Imagine you walk into a strange house where a burglary was allegedly taking place, encounter someone you don’t know from Adam, who starts verbally assaulting you, acts out of control, and refuses at first to show ID. You have no idea if he’s in the house alone, if there isn’t an armed accomplice hiding somewhere, it’s a stressful situation and antagonizing the cop and making his job harder isn’t a smart way to go about it.

Same with traffic stops. Showing a little consideration usually helps, imagine you are a cop, out on the highway, alone, away from backup, walking up to a car at night with limited visibility into the car. Think that isn’t a pucker factor situation? I’m amazed they are as calm and professional as they are sometimes, I’d sure not feel comfortable doing that. Jumping up and down, making sudden moves, etc. Yeah, maybe you aren’t armed and that made a cop overreact, but if you would take a quick moment to think about their position, it would smooth things out a lot.

And let’s just also be rational, if you do get into their face, you do risk a smackdown. Not all of them are professional, and run into the wrong one and you do not want to give them an excuse. You can always complain later and raise a stink, in the middle of a stressful situation isn’t exactly the place to get into it, it can often trigger reactions that no one on either side will feel good about later.

In one of the incidents, my house was in total disarray, we were in the middle of reorganizing things, boxes and crap strewn all over the place. The officer said something like good thing you were here, looking at this place I would have assumed someone was ransacking it. I sheepishly admitted that he wasn’t seeing the place on it’s best day.

Undergirding the long digression, though, was Obama’s place as a new symbol of racial reconciliation, and his long past in the trenches of the politics of race and discrimination in the Illinois State Senate.

HAHAHAHA Right!!! This is the funniest statement I have read in a very long time. Obama has never worked for racial reconcillation, and has never been in a trench. In IL state politics, he represented a mostly black south side Chicago district. He went to the right church, and sucked up to the pastor there, as to get some mention and stroke the plummage of a racist jackass..i.e. Rev Wright.

His presidency has been in the works a very long time, but Barack has never had to face racism. Also, lest we forget, Barack Obama is half white. – Lorica

“I guess this is my house now,” he remarked of the White House. “Here I’d get shot.”

No, your sense of entitlement aside, this is not your house. Last I looked, it still belongs to We The People. You’re a temporary guest and you ought to start acting like it.

Besides, if Obama were locked outside of the White House, he wouldn’t try opening the door. He’d try going in through the window.

What’s making him look even worse is that the more we learn about this incident, the worse Gates looks. For example, Cambridge happened to dispatch a “diverse” unit of police – one white, one black, and one Hispanic – all of whom have the same story. For obvious reasons, Gates is focusing on the white cop. His whining would get no traction if he went after the black cop, and he knows it. And that’s all the more reason Obama should have stayed out of this matter.

And anyone who has spent any amount of time in the “higher” education system knows the Professor Gates type: bitter, spiteful, bigoted racist with a position of power who felt emboldened to make a political statement.

This is the type of Professor who would change the subject on you when you attempt to engage in a debate- or would give you a poor grade because you actually have an opinion, and done research outside of marxist texts and such. You are fooling no one, Mr Gates.

And Mr President, is this “nuance” you’ve spoke of? “the police acted stupidly”? -please

Obama is out to rip this country to shreds in EVERY way- who can question that such ill-advised statements are divisive… and NOT helpful? He has no idea what happened, he admitted it- and apparently doesn’t care, either… he’s picked his side.

But back in reality, the childish and paranoid Gates completely baited the cop, who acted with admirable restraint, IMO… all he had to do is show his ID and shut up, he was treated with respect. This guy was clearly looking for a fight… and he ought to thank God he didn’t find one.

Obama is going to destroy race relations in this country with his vengeful “get even” mentality… some messiah- Americans should have chosen a fair and sensible human being instead of this embittered nut.

I’ve come to believe, however, that this was totally planned by Obama and his buddy Rahm. They wanted to divert the discussion in this country away from healthcare and make it about racism so they can ram their universal healthcare through. The deceit is mind-boggling and they have succeeded in pitting Blacks against Whites and Whites against Blacks, in addition to putting this country into debt that is unsustainable. Sad we have such a person in the White House.

I watched his speech last night and was sickened to hear how the poor blacks and latinos get picked on by the cops because of their color. NOOOO they get ” picked’ on because they doing chit illegally..

If you can’t speak proper or plain english, too lazy to learn it, then move to the country where they actually speak it. If we moved to their country, they would DEMAND that we speak and understand their language. But yet, they come here (mostly illegally) get our SS income, our jobs, free money and medical care and oh yeah, if you see them driving in front of you get in the other lane ASAP because they will slam on their brakes and when you rear end them, YOUR at fault and your insurance company and you will pay out the wa zoo for their new home, car and what ever else they want…